Britain Looting Spree

A riot scars Birmingham

The black Daimler attracted a crowd as soon as it pulled up last week near the burned-out hulk of what had been a postal substation in Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city. Out of the limousine stepped Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, anxious to show his concern. "I'm just here to listen," Hurd told a crowd of residents of Handsworth, one of Birmingham's poorest neighborhoods. But the crowd was in no mood to talk. Hurd was showered first with jeers, then with rocks, and was hustled to safety by police.

Thus began the second day of the worst rioting in Britain since 1981. Before...